The Film Festival Reader

What is the importance of film festivals in the context of film culture at large? What logic reigns within the film festival galaxy? Are film festivals tools of power and prestige that make or break the fate of a film? Or do they effectively seal diverse and unique cinema from the wider public whilst simultaneously professing to celebrate it? What are the key features and who are the key stakeholders of the film festival? What, if anything, is wrong with the concept of ‘festival films’? What makes a good film festival good or a bad one bad?

It is these and other questions that are raised and treated in the classic texts included in this collection. Festivals, for so long a key component of film culture, have been ignored in film studies scholarship that is still dominated by textual approaches. They were neither consistently discussed in the public domain nor were they included in teaching related to film history. This is now rapidly changing. Nowadays, we see a proliferation of concrete and general studies on film festivals and the emergence of a fuller understanding of the actual dynamics of film culture. It is in this context that we offer a representative anthology that collects some of the important texts that have fostered the thinking on festivals so far.

While most published commentary on film festivals consists of either glorified press releases or a series of capsule reviews, The Film Festival Reader offers rigorous, analytical assessments of the festival scene. At a time when festivals have become an increasingly vital component of film culture, this book will be of enormous use to both students and professionals.